Pages

Sunday, September 22

Sunday Thoughts: Week 3

I was out of town this weekend and didn't get to watch nearly as much football as I would have liked (and DVR'd Bears/Steelers, so I haven't watched that yet), but the thoughts still must come! Let's get after it.

-The Panthers and Giants each had negative total yards halfway through the first quarter. While the Panthers eventually turned that terrible start around, the Giants apparently have not realized the season has started, and dropped to 0-3. Luckily, that division is so terrible that they can probably still win it.

-But that won't stop the G-men from being our Worst Team of the Week. They are bad and they should feel bad.

-In that same game, the Panthers had six sacks in the first 17 minutes after only having three in Weeks 1 and 2. Carolina finished with seven sacks. Many ended with Eli Manning making a similar face as the one above.

-Speaking of terrible starts, the New Orleans Saints had four rushes for -6 yards in the first half. Granted, one was a kneel-down by Drew Brees, but it still doesn't bode well. Fortunately, they got on track in the second half and ended up with positive rushing yardage. It still wasn't impressive, but at least it wasn't negative.

-There were multiple commercials for Ron Howard's new movie, Rush. One such commercial quoted some source as saying "One of the best movies of this year...or any year!" Way to make that more intense than it needed to be, commercial-building team.

-The New York Jets committed 20 penalties for 168 yards and somehow still beat the Buffalo Bills 27-20. Pretty poetic--one point given up for each penalty committed. I don't understand how New York is 2-1, and really one big play away from being 3-0. Remarkable.

-Our Stupidest Player of the Week once again goes to the 49ers Aldon Smith, this time for an off-field incident where he was driving drunk with marijuana in the car. That's pretty inexcusable, and coupled with firing guns at a party to get people to leave--former teammate Delanie Walker was also shooting to clear the way, and one man got shot in the leg, though the Niners's defense attorney is saying that said man accepted the possibility of being shot by simply attending the party--you can bet Smith is on thin ice with San Francisco. Or at least I hope he is, since voluntarily putting yourself in a position to potentially kill someone else on multiple occasions is something that should be frowned upon.

-For onfield performance, our Stupidest Player of the Week is Christian Ponder. I don't know how you can routinely have so many turnovers and still keep your starting job. Oh, maybe when you've had Joe Webb and now Matt Cassel as your backups. That's probably how.

-Week 3 and the Green Bay Packers do not get along. As I'm sure you recall last year, the Packers lost to the Seahawks on a late Hail Mary, and the replacement refs were promptly...well, replaced. This week, the Pack spotted the Bengals a 14-0 lead, then scored 30 unanswered to go up 30-14, and were clinging to a 30-27 lead with about five minutes left in the game. They went for it on fourth and inches near midfield, resulting in a Jonathan Franklin fumble as he tried to jump over the line of scrimmage but had the ball punched out. Cincinnati's Reggie Nelson recovered the fumble, then he had it knocked out of his hands, only for the ball to roll forward five yards into Terrence Newman's paws, who promptly returned it for the game-winning touchdown.

-Thanks to that Bengals play, I learned that, while an offensive team can't advance a fumble like that, a defensive team can, if it's outside of the final two minutes. That seems weird and inconsistent, but hey, so is football.